-
The Singularity And How We May Get There
Posted on August 1st, 2009 6 commentsSo what is this singularity? Is it the singularity that is found near a black hole? Well, this is a gravitational singularity but it is not the one I’m on about at the moment. The idea for the name of the singularity that I am talking about now actually came from the gravitational singularity as it is hard to see beyond the event horizon just as it is hard to see beyond a point where there is an intelligence explosion and the human race becomes so intelligent that it is impossible to imagine.
The point where intelligence evolves from what we know to a higher one is called the singularity. There is a lot of discussion about what will happen after the singularity. Will that artificially created intelligence become self-aware? Will a computer tell us to go and get lost when we turn it on?
Computer scientist and science fiction writer Vernor Vinge was the first, with the name singularity. He argued that the acceleration of technological progress had led to “the edge of change comparable to the rise of human life on Earth.”
There are lots of ways that the singularity could be achieved. By computers, artificial intelligence, direct brain interfaces, biological augmentation of the brain, genetic engineering or ultra-high-resolution scans of the brain followed by computer emulation intelligence.
There’s a big bet that computers will achieve singularity quite quickly, well in 20 to 40 years or so. Computers have
Brain Interface
been doubling their power every two years (Moore’s Law) for ages now and if you carry this on into the future you can see why a singularity is a possibility. Computers are evolving much, much quicker than humans ever could and have ever done but there is a thought though that Moores Law may fail as it may be the cost and not the technological advances that slow down the intelligence rise of computers.
Artificial intelligence is already used to automate and replace some human functions with computer-driven machines. These machines can see and hear, respond to questions, learn, draw conclusions and solve problems. For the people that believe in the singularity, A.I. refers to machines that will be both self-aware and have a superhuman intelligence and be able to build much better intelligences than humans can. This would provide a technology explosion.
A brain computer interface is a direct link between your brain and an external device, the connection to the brain can be either inside the head or outside the head. A direct link inside has its advantages but with the obvious problem that someone has to dig around inside your head.
The brain gate system is a direct link to the brain and senses commands. There would be lots of ideas for uses for this interface, mainly computer control and the control of artificial limbs by a completely paralysed person. Clinical trials are being carried out on the brain gate system and at the moment you can apply online ( July 2009).
This all sounds too good to be true but it’s all down to the way the brain is made up. Although the paths the signals take in the brain are insulated by something called myelin, some of the electric signal escapes. Scientists can detect the signals, interpret what they mean and use them to direct a device of some kind. It can also work the other way around. For example, researchers could figure out what signals are sent to the brain by the optic nerve when someone sees the color red. They could rig a camera that would send those exact signals into someone’s brain whenever the camera saw red, allowing a blind person to “see” without eyes.
A less invasive way to use a brain control interface has been developed by Emotiv. If you think your way to their
Emotiv's Brain Computer Interface
website you can see someone driving a wheelchair using a headset and facial expressions. It has also been used in games and has changed from being just an emotional centre playing out your emotions on the screen to a full game controller, controlling any game. Unfortunately it is directed solely at games, I suppose that is where the money is.
Another similar device to control a computer with just a band that goes over your head is called Brainfinger. Sounds a bit like a James Bond movie but doesn’t really allow you to do the same things as Mr Bond. Once trained, and the training can take a while, you are able to play and use the games provided with the package. This isn’t really full computer control and doesn’t really reflect the freedom that a computer can give.
Brain finger is very expensive but emotive’s Epoch is a reasonable price. It’s early days though and it is not a bad start for both packages.
A simulated human brain project has been underway for a while called the Blue Brain Project. Research is ongoing and better methods are being discovered for sensing signals from the brain.
Our merging with the superhuman intelligence that may develop from the singularity could probably be as a brain computer interface. If we didn’t manage to get along with this superhuman intelligence then what would it think of us? Would it look at us as its masters or would it look down on us as inferior beings with inferior intelligence and work out in its silicon brain that we are just no use to anyone any more and need to be recycled?
We would be the superior intelligence’s ancestors so they may treat us with awe and compassion and help us get along
Cyborg Faces
even better than we did before with all the lovely gadgets that could be invented by such an advanced intelligence.
On the other hand they may just invent a load of super weapons press the button and destroy us entirely. I can’t really work out whether we deserve that or not, and of course there is always the option that we may be used as food or some other resource that they would find handy.
There is another way of course. What if super intelligence and human minds merged into one? Well, as long as the super intelligence was a slave to us I don’t think we would mind that much and the benefits are massive. We could just think and everything would happen around us. If our bodies weren’t keeping up with our advances then we would have to have a body designed and made for us so we would be some sort of cyborg, could be interesting.
Ray Kurzwell is the main man when looking for information on the singularity and its ideas. He is not just dreaming he has come up with lots of ideas in the past and this may be another. If you want to read more from him then buy the book (The Singularity is Near
) and if you are ultra-keen then go to his university.
Obviously we are delving quite a way into the future and what I would expect to see would be super intelligent computers first of all giving us grief as we use them to surf the Internet or perhaps just not turning on because they had a bad night and pulling a sickie.
Join the forum discussion on this post - (3) Posts
Every Post, physics artificial intelligence, brain, brain computer interface, brainfinger, computer emulation, emotiv, genetic engineering, hands free computer, intelligence, Moores law, Ray kurzwell, science, Singularity, superior, weird6 responses to “The Singularity And How We May Get There”
-
[...] here: The Singularity And How We May Get There | Share and [...]
-
Torbjörn Larsson, OM August 3rd, 2009 at 21:59
Thank you, I have never seen an actual attempt of a testable definition of the singularity so I have considered it as so much woo.
My remaining problem is that I still do. There is no inherent qualitative change in a new technology, whether it is intelligence boosting (already happening, btw) or anything else. As Clarke roughly put it, any sufficiently advanced technology will appear magical (partly from unpredictability on longer periods). Without a qualitative change or any quantitative measure, it is still untestable woo.
But I’m sure Kurzweil is rich.
[Btw, as usual "artificial intelligence" research is here confused with actual artificial intelligence.
It is AFAIU already known (since 2003 IIRC) that large parts of the cortex is working with efficient coding. (To keep signals stable - on average one neuron/time step activated from one neuron signal.) This makes attempts of decoding dependent on the original network, i.e. will in practice be impossible for the considered time horizon. So no "merge" during the considered period, merely interfacing.
As the article itself makes clear by example, natural intelligence is embodied, so hardware dependent. Again an exceedingly difficult proposition to make a technological equivalent, and even more to emulate it fully in software. (If it is at all possible, some hardware is tough to emulate.)
The difficulty is on the order of figuring out how a genotype makes a phenotype. That has been unsolved in its totality for 100 years, and the details will keep scientists busy for another couple of decades. So the way to bet is IMHO that 40 years is clearly insufficient - especially as much fewer scientists works on this than on biology at large.]
-
I am sure Ray Kurzweil is doing fine, thank you very much
I do like the idea though but perhaps that’s because I want to live forever. The singularity is almost turning into a religion for some people but I feel there are bits and pieces that are plausible and add to my view of the universe.
Yes, I also think that 40 years is wishful thinking but it is popular thinking and really we should be looking at 1000 to 1,000,000 years to get the singularity although we will develop up to that point and interface with machines to the point where the interface between humans and machines is completely seamless.
It would be nice if somebody could build a brain so I could transfer into it and see when the singularity does actually does occur.
-
alphie August 5th, 2009 at 07:40
Interesting article. A couple of points:
Moore’s Law (an empirical observation rather than an actual ‘law’ (in the scientific sense) actually states the number of transistors/level of integration/ how much you can stuff onto a sillicon chip doubles every 2 yrs or so. This doesn’t necessarily translate into a doubling of computer power, though to be fair you HAVE included a link to a more correct definition in the article.
The scecond point is rather trickier & has dogged many in this field continuously – the distinction between conciousness,intelligence, mind & brain. These terms tend to be used interchangeably, andd often quite sublty, making it difficult to pinpoint or describe which of these is actually being discussed.
Not a criticism per se of an otherwise fairly well-written article, but just illustrating the difficulties of writing about such n intricate subject.
-
Alphie
Thanks for the update on Moore’s Law, I didn’t really look into it too much as most people when they write these articles concentrate on the same things I try to do something a little bit different
I see what you mean about consciousness intelligence mind and brain but if something like the singularity does occur, in my mind (or is it brain?) all of these four attributes will have occurred,
-
[...] Or A Toaster Defeat? Posted on August 5th, 2009 chrdann No comments After talking about the singularity and robots this midweek podcast gives you all the tools to find out what to do when the Robot [...]
Leave a reply
-
